A friend of mine asked, "Just what wars and terrorist activities
has the United Nations ever prevented?" It's a very good question.

The United Nations got blindsided by the Korean War in the 1950's (typically
called "a police action" to avoid the obvious) and the United
States had to fight it and bring about a settlement that has left our
troops on guard there ever since. In a similar fashion, our troops have
been in Europe since the end of World War II.

In the Middle East, the UN got out of the way every time Israel was attacked,
often facilitating, not avoiding the constant conflicts there. The UN
did nothing when Red China marched into Tibet and took over that nation.
Earlier, in the 1950's, it did nothing when the Soviets put their tanks
and troops into Hungary or Czechoslovakia. Its record throughout Africa
has been abysmal. It stood by while the Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia into
a killing ground.

You can tick off any number of conflicts in which it played no role in
either avoiding or ending them; the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur
War in 1973, the Turkish invasion of Crete in 1974.

The United Nations was useless in bringing about an end to the war in
Vietnam. It was the United States that put together the Gulf War coalition
to defeat Iraq. It was NATO that intervened in Yugoslavia.

Not many solutions come out of the United Nations

So my friend's question is worth considering and the answer is that the
United Nations has served poorly since its inception and has probably
contributed as much to initiating, condoning or ignoring these conflicts
as bringing about any conclusion.

The hypocrisy and torrent of lies that come out of the United Nations
conference on racism should, one think, wake up Americans and others in
Western nations to the reality of this insidious institution. Unfortunately,
in the affairs of men, it doesn't work that way. Only those with a passion
for liberty and justice pay notice to its enemies.

After Tuesday, September 11th, one can only hope that Americans will
think anew about the United Nations, a nest of vipers and a hotbed of
anti-America activity. The United Nations should have be allowed to die
of its own inertia and evil intentions. Merely withdrawing US diplomats
from the conference was something akin to putting a Band-Aid on a gaping
wound turned gangrenous. The US needs to get out entirely and let it implode.

Much has been made of the racism conference's use as a podium for that
most ancient of hatreds, the slanders heaped upon Jews. Fostered by a
dozen Middle Eastern nations, this calumny had managed to drive other
issues into the background, but there never was any need for the conference.
Racism exists everywhere and not one thousand conferences will eradicate
it. This UN conference was simply an excuse to advance anti-Semitism,
the grievances of black peoples against whites, and comparable complaints.

Largely unnoticed is the xenophobia that exists on a daily basis at the
United Nations. While the UN constantly hectors the US to send money that
constitutes 25 per cent of its budget, Americans hold only 7.2 per cent of its more than
56,000 jobs. A study by the General Accounting Office determined that,
at the senior, decision-making level, only 2,076 Americans, 9.5 per cent, hold
such positions. This prejudice exists throughout the UN's operations.
The World Food Program, for which the US provides more than half of its
funding, is staffed by 90 per cent of non-American personnel who, every year,
find it difficult to account for tons of food that simply goes missing.

Earlier this year, the United States lost its seat on the UN Human Rights
Commission. The US had held a seat since its inception in 1947. A number
of African nations where human rights are non-existent nonetheless hold
seats on this commission, along with Cuba and that great paragon of human
rights, the Peoples Republic of China. Rejection of the US should have
signaled Congress that it was time to leave, but the only action it took
was to vote to withhold $242 million in UN dues until the US seat is restored.
It's time to inform the UN those dues will now be spent on rebuilding
our military and other aspects of our national security.

Meanwhile, the UN continues its effort to ban several private human rights
advocacy groups from participating as non-governmental organizations.
Among them are Freedom House, the Baptist World Alliance, the Simon Weisenthal
Center and the Family Research Council. The effort is being led by a 19-nation
subcommittee of the UN Economic and Social Council.

In August, a spokesman for the UN Population Fund, Sven Burnester, told
British reporters that "For all the bad press, China has achieved
the impossible. The country has solved its population problem." This
is consistent with the view that the world's real problem is the human
race. Meanwhile, the forced abortions, sterilization, and the outright
killing of new-borns, continues as a state-endorsed one-child-only program
throughout Red China, though to the credit of ordinary Chinese, it is
still widely flouted.

The attack on Western values never ends with these despicable people.
The United Nations planned to hold a "Children's Summit" in
New York in September, but the bombing of the Twin Towers caused its postponement
until next year. The conference was intended to secure greater participation
in a Convention on the Rights of Children, a treaty designed to steal
the natural right of parents over their children and transfer it to the
UN. One hundred and ninety-one nations have signed onto the Convention.
The US and Somalia remain the last major holdouts. Ironically, the US
finds itself allied with several Moslem nations in opposition to UN educational
programs advocating abortion.

The drive toward a global "environmental governance" program
continues. In the same way the UN conjured up the Kyoto treaty on Climate
Control, an insidious instrument intended to force Western, industrialized
nations to destroy their economies, the UN Environmental Program (UNEP)
has convened an "expert consultants" procedure that always precedes
the creation of yet another noxious treaty. This one would be introduced
at the June 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. The goal of
this treaty would be to turn the UNEP into the UN equivalent of the World
Trade Organization, but one that would give environmental groups the opportunity
to impose restraints on trade in favor of environmental mandates.

Americans remain blithely unaware of a vast matrix of United Nations
treaties, some of which actually cede our national sovereignty in ways
that would astound and appall them. For example, in 1972, the US signed
the UN World Heritage Treaty. It created "World Heritage Sites"
and Biosphere Reserves." Selected for their cultural, historical
or natural significance, national governments are obligated to protect
these landmarks. Since 1972, 68 per cent of all US National Parks, Monuments and
Preserves have been designated World Heritage Sites.

Among those that fall under the ultimate control of the United Nations
are the Statue of Liberty, Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello, the
Washington Monument, the Brooklyn Bridge, Yellowstone National Park, the
Florida Everglades, and the Grand Canyon.

When the Crown Buttes Mines wanted to mine for gold in Montana, that
project to access this nation's valuable natural resource was thwarted
by the United Nations at the request of the Clinton administration. The
mine, it said, was too close to Yellowstone. The project would have employed
280 people and generated $230 million in revenue. This was a direct attack
on the company's property rights under the US Constitution and ignored
a US federal law prohibiting the inclusion of non-federal property within
a US World Heritage Site without the consent of the property owner.

The United Nations has made no secret of its intent to be the sole government
of the entire world. The report of the UN Commission on Global Governance,
"Our Global Neighborhood", was published by the Oxford University
Press in 1995. There you will find plans for the UN World Court endorsed
by the Clinton administration, an independent military free to invade
any nation that will not cede its freedom to the UN, and, of course, a
system of worldwide taxation to fund this monstrosity.

The litany of the United Nations hypocrisy and its patient, creeping
effort to control the world could fill several books. The real question
is when, if ever, Americans will awaken to the danger it represents and
demand US withdrawal from this vile international institution? It took
the destruction of the World Trade Center and an attack on the Pentagon
to shake Americans to the realization that we have real enemies in the
world.

Alan Caruba is a frequent contributor. He writes a weekly column,
"Warning Signs", from which this is excerpted. It is posted
on the Internet site of The National
Anxiety Center. (c) Alan Caruba, 2001.